Okay, so after around two weeks of using ubuntu, playing around with it, I just can't get it to run stable. I thought display drivers were the cause, but no. Made no difference, whether I was on VESA, nv or the ones from NVIDIA.com. Tried various different downloaded versions on various CD-Rs. Live CD just never boots, the alt text based installer does install and boot it but...

Things crash, my downloads are almost always corrupted, buttons and whole applications have just stopped working - Firefox has just completely disappeared from all menus and just doesn't work without having done anything to cause it.

So anyway, Ubuntu, is not working out for me but I'd like to try a new distro and was looking for some recommendations. I know this can be a tough subject because everyone obviously thinks the distro they run is the best one.

I basically want something that I can setup easily to:
- play music from mp3 and wma files
- browse the web with all the usual Flash/Shockwave/Java bits working
- watch video files such as DVDs and xvid/divx and have AC-3 work from my Audigy 2 ZS SPDIF.
- run Beryl (after a month or two of running the basic OS so I can get use to it - I'm in no rush)

I also need to have the ability to customise the look and feel of the desktop easily. I'm learning new things about the terminal everyday, even with my broken Ubuntu, but I don't want to do everything from there.

Okay, so after around two weeks of using ubuntu, playing around with it, I just can't get it to run stable. I thought display drivers were the cause, but no. Made no difference, whether I was on VESA, nv or the ones from NVIDIA.com. Tried various different downloaded versions on various CD-Rs. Live CD just never boots, the alt text based installer does install and boot it but...

Things crash, my downloads are almost always corrupted, buttons and whole applications have just stopped working - Firefox has just completely disappeared from all menus and just doesn't work without having done anything to cause it.

So anyway, Ubuntu, is not working out for me but I'd like to try a new distro and was looking for some recommendations. I know this can be a tough subject because everyone obviously thinks the distro they run is the best one.

I basically want something that I can setup easily to:
- play music from mp3 and wma files
- browse the web with all the usual Flash/Shockwave/Java bits working
- watch video files such as DVDs and xvid/divx and have AC-3 work from my Audigy 2 ZS SPDIF.
- run Beryl (after a month or two of running the basic OS so I can get use to it - I'm in no rush)

I also need to have the ability to customise the look and feel of the desktop easily. I'm learning new things about the terminal everyday, even with my broken Ubuntu, but I don't want to do everything from there.